Indeed Resume Employer Subscriptions: How the New Model Will Work

In today’s hiring landscape, it pays to be proactive when sourcing talent. To help recruiters take control of their hiring efforts, we launched Indeed Resume, a database searchable by industry, education, title and location in 2011.

Since then, Indeed Resume—which is completely free for job seekers to create or upload their resume—has grown enormously: up from one million searchable resumes at the end of 2011 to over 100 million today. With 2.6 million new resumes added each month, and a 44% total response rate it’s become a powerful tool for recruiters.

In 2018 we will be making a change to how we price Indeed Resume for employers, moving to a subscription model. We believe this will be more effective for both employers and job seekers. The change will make it much easier to predict and set recruiting costs while rewarding recruiters with tangible benefits.

From ‘Pay Per Contact’ to ‘Subscription’

At present, searching Indeed Resume is free while most employers pay on a per contact basis for each candidate they reach out to. In early 2018 the model will change: searching the database will remain free, but employers will need a subscription to contact candidates.

Featured Employers will continue to enjoy unlimited contacts* through the first quarter of 2018, after which point they will need a subscription to contact candidates.

Why are we making this change?

We know that the best recruiters send out fewer contacts and receive the highest response rates, while improving the job seeker experience by limiting irrelevant contacts.

Ultimately, our goal is to make Indeed Resume the best place to find and engage with all the people you want to hire by helping recruiters become more efficient and effective, which will save them time and money.

How the subscription model will work

Because different recruiters have different needs there will be two levels of subscription, which are more cost effective than alternatives on the market. A “Standard” subscription will cost $100 per month and grant you 30 new contacts a month, while a “Professional” subscription will cost $250 per month and grant you 100 new contacts a month.

We’re also introducing something new: Indeed will give contact credits to employers whenever they get a response from a candidate.

What does this mean and how is it measured? Every time a job seeker responds to your outreach, we will grant you contact credits. Positive candidate responses will receive two contact credits, and negative candidate responses will receive one contact credit. Better engagement from candidates means more contacts for employers, and greater value from your subscription.

But there’s also a financial benefit. With a platform of active job seekers where employers receive on average a 44% total response rate, we expect to be rewarding lots of contact credits to employers. In fact, due to the credit system, many employers will have a lower cost per contact than what they currently experience.

What if you don’t use all these contacts in a given month? Simple: any unused contacts will roll over for up to 6 months. You can also distribute unused contacts with colleagues, by transferring them to their subscriptions. Administrators will have an easy way to manage and maximize their Indeed Resume subscriptions and contacts in our interface.

More improvements are planned for 2018

We believe this change will also ensure a better experience for jobseekers, as it includes incentives to reward recruiters who have a high positive response rate. But more engaged jobseekers will also mean better results for recruiters.

This is just the start of many improvements which are already underway that will make Indeed Resume the best place to find and engage with talent. We will be announcing more improvements in the coming months.

In the meantime, other things will not change. Indeed Resume will remain free for job seekers looking to create or upload their resumes. And as always, it’s free for employers to include qualifying jobs on Indeed, and most of the hires that come from Indeed will continue to be free of charge.